The academic study of philanthropy presupposes a comprehensive definition that guides inquiry into what, exactly, philanthropy is and why it matters. At present, though, no such well-thought-out definition exists. Scholars tend to explore various facets of philanthropy, according to their particular academic interests, but without a comprehensive understanding of its full meaning. This article attempts to correct this lack of synoptic understanding by surveying prominent instances of usage and definitions of philanthropy in the modern era and synthesizing them into a overall framework for understanding its full modern meaning. In so doing, philanthropy is revealed to be a signal word, the evolution in the meaning of which reflects historically dominant philosophical and cultural trends in modern Western society. The subject of this article is further explored in a forthcoming article, to be published in the next issue of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, titled "On the Classical Meaning of Philanthrôpía."

This study contributes to the emerging empirical studies on roles and responsibilities of boards in nonprofit organizations by identifying competencies of volunteer board members. We identified how two types of constituents—volunteer board members and sports members—perceived competencies of volunteer board members in community sports clubs. We used the repertory grid technique to draw cognitive maps and to reveal the perceived reality of these constituents. Our results suggest that constituents within a group share similar perceptions of competencies of outstanding performing board members, whereas they agree less on perceptions of poor performing board members. This study reveals that cognitive (e.g., having a long-term vision, having professionalism), emotional intelligence (e.g., being reliable, being honest), and social intelligence (e.g., listening to others, being jovial/nice to be with) competencies are necessary to be perceived as an outstanding performing board member.

This study considers the thesis that volunteering is gaining a fundamentally new quality as a result of broader social and cultural transformations. Whereas existing research has focused on the changing nature of volunteering, this study deals with the decision to quit volunteering and examines whether it may be considered part of the "politics of self-actualization," that is, the more active and individualized monitoring of life. Former styles of volunteering and reasons for quitting were examined in a group of 99 ex-volunteers of the Red Cross in Flanders, Belgium, and volunteering habits were compared with a sample of 652 volunteers. Ex-volunteers did not systematically differ from the sample of volunteers with regard to their social background profile, volunteering behavior, and strength of organizational attachment. Furthermore, the decision to quit more likely reflected the routine nature of everyday practices than an autonomous and self-conscious life design.

In the field of program evaluation, one of the first things evaluators often do to evaluate a program is to identify the "theory of change" behind the program and create a "logic model" to articulate why the program is expected to work. This allows evaluators to make an assessment about the expectations and feasibility of the program, as well as assess program implementation. In this article, the author uses the theory of change approach to evaluation and creates a logic model for the "accountability movement" or the tendency for funders to require nonprofit organizations to conduct evaluations and report performance information. The model is tested with empirical data, finding that the theory behind the accountability movement suffers from four design and implementation flaws well-known to evaluators: (a) unstandardized treatment, (b) confusion among targets, (c) coverage, and (d) intensity issues. The article concludes by offering insights and recommendations for improving accountability practices.

Based on a survey of a representative sample of nonprofit organizations, this article explores the impact of the Sarbanes—Oxley Act (SOX) on the nonprofit sector. The study addresses two questions: What is the level of SOX adoption by nonprofit organizations? and How do we explain variations in the adoption level of SOX? Using Poisson regression models, our study finds that the level of SOX adoption in nonprofit organizations is determined to a large extent by nonprofit organizations’ accountability and transparency structure prior to SOX. When this factor is taken into account, contrary to previous studies, the level of SOX adoption by nonprofits is modest. In addition to the existing accountability structure, important variables in the statistical explanation of SOX adoption include CEOs’ familiarity with SOX, attitudes of nonprofit CEOs toward SOX, and organization size.

This study unveils which factors affect decisions to fund Microfinance Institutions (MFIs). A quality-loyalty model is proposed to explain funder—MFI relationships. The role played by outreach and sustainability as perceived quality antecedents within a MFI has been studied. The model includes MFI transparency as an antecedent of trust. The proposed model is tested using a survey of 116 managers of MFI funding bodies. The analytical technique used to test the model is Partial Least Squares (PLS). The results suggest that both outreach and sustainability are important for MFI funders. The managerial implications for MFIs are discussed.

The purpose of this article is to examine the fundraising approaches and challenges of the Hampton Institute during the 1960s and 1970s—a time of racial turmoil and great change throughout the country. This turmoil, combined with a push for integration within the larger Black community and among White liberals, made for an uncertain fundraising environment. In addition, this article explores Hampton Institute’s decision to withdraw from the United Negro College Fund, a fundraising organization for private Black colleges, in 1968 and the impact of this action on Hampton’s ability to raise necessary funds.

We use national surveys of congregations conducted in 1998 and 2006-2007 to assess whether or not the faith-based initiative increased congregations’ social service involvement, government funding, or collaborations with government or nonprofit organizations. More congregations indicated interest in social services and government funding in 2006-2007 than in 1998, but congregational involvement in social services, government funding, or collaborations has not increased since 1998. An in-depth local study of partnerships between congregations and nonprofit social service agencies leads to the same conclusion. The faith-based initiative did not change congregations’ behavior or expand their role in our social welfare system because it overlooked congregations’ longstanding role in community systems, and it was built on false assumptions about congregations’ latent capacity to expand that role and the extent to which they constitute a meaningful alternative to existing organizational networks of social support.

This article provides evidence of the growing similarity in capacity of for-profit and nonprofit hospitals in the United States. Between 1960 and 2000, the typical nonprofit hospital shrank from being 3 times as large as the average for-profit hospital to being merely one-third larger. Analysis of aggregate hospital data implies that the convergence in capacity is replicated by the growing similarity between nonprofit and for-profit hospitals in the number of admissions and average lengths of stay. An analysis of hospital-level data reveals that the convergence was driven primarily by entry, exit, and ownership switches, rather than expansions or downsizing of existing hospitals. Further research is needed to uncover the driving forces that led to this growing similarity between nonprofit and for-profit hospitals.

Although Japan has a lower level of volunteering than many other countries, recent studies show slow but steady changes in its voluntary sector. Motivated by the scarcity of generalizable studies on volunteering among Japanese, the author examines the effects of demographic, socioeconomic, and social capital variables on the number of hours volunteered in Japan using data from the 2002 Japanese General Social Survey. Findings show that although demographic, socioeconomic, and social capital variables all help explain the level of volunteering, social capital variables appear to be stronger predictors than the other two types of variables. Religiosity is one of the most significant facilitators of volunteering, even though the large majority of Japanese do not practice organized religion. Frequent face-to-face contact with friends also increases volunteering hours. Most interestingly, individuals who interact more with foreigners volunteer more hours.

During the era of neoliberalism, the nonprofit services sector has simultaneously been a site of (a) promarket restructuring and collective and individual resistance and (b) alternative forms of service delivery. Drawing on data collected as part of an ethnographic study in the Canadian nonprofit social services sector, this article explores the impacts of some of restructuring on professional, quasi-professional, and managerial employees in eight unionized, nonprofit social services. The data show that the adoption of social unionism has permitted some nonprofit social service workers to initiate new processes through which to have a voice in far-reaching social issues, sometimes in coalition with management and/or clients. The findings of this study point to the irrepressibility of the participatory spirit and its capacity to seek new forms and practices despite the stretched and restructured conditions of today’s nonprofit social services sector.

Using the case of Movement Brontosaurus, a Czech organization founded in state socialist times, this article investigates how civic associations and nongovernmental organizations seeking to promote alternatives to the status quo respond to institutional pressures in different political and social contexts. The case shows that under state socialism, Brontosaurus appeared to conform to state mandates and societal expectations. However, its formal structure was decoupled from many activities to obscure its oppositional intent. After the transition to democracy, the organization was only able to maintain its place in society after it aligned its structure and practices with each other and openly expressed its alternative agenda. The findings demonstrate how social change and alternative lifestyle organizations vary their responses to institutional pressure in ways that enable them to realize their values and pursue their missions while accounting for the political and social contexts in which they are embedded.

Service delivery partnerships with local government offer both opportunities and challenges for nonprofit agencies, but the normative and institutionalist tendencies of the collaboration literature tend to downplay the rationales for avoiding partnerships and the influence of managerial characteristics on the decision to collaborate. Nonprofit executive directors across the state of Georgia were asked about factors that might inhibit them from collaborating with local government agencies. Principal components analysis created four dependent variables from these answers, which were regressed on various respondent, organizational, and community characteristics. The resulting analysis finds that managerial attitudes about collaboration are not monolithic: They reflect underlying political and social dynamics that should be understood as distinct constructs, linked to experience and personal background. The findings suggest that future research should specify the exact nature of collaborative barriers, examine the individual backgrounds of those charged with collaborative responsibility, and integrate theories of organizational and human behavior.

Firms devote increasing funds and resources to cause-related marketing (CRM). This report seeks to uncover some of the factors that explain how firms choose between competing social causes in the development of their CRM strategy. The behavior of firms traded on the London Stock Exchange is analyzed, by highlighting regularities and patterns in CRM activities. The rationales for the observed patterns are investigated through semistructured interviews with managers employed by UK-based nonprofit organizations, financial services, and retail firms. The authors identify, among other things, differences in the nature of the "selected" social causes, the length and geographical scope of the social campaigns, and the (CRM) strategies used to implement them. It is argued that these variations may reflect differences in the organizational legitimacy pressures experienced by firms in the retail and financial services sectors.